• Michael D. Cohen, Ph.D. (University of Michigan)
• Julie A. Fairman, Ph.D., R.N. (University of Pennsylvania)
• Joseph J. Fins, M.D. (Weill Cornell Medical College)
• Co-principal investigators Dominick L. Frosch, Ph.D. (University of California, Los Angeles), and Jose A. Pagan, Ph.D. (University of Texas - Pan American)
• Co-principal investigators Sandro Galea, M.D., Dr.P.H., and George A. Kaplan, Ph.D. (University of Michigan)
• Haiden A. Huskamp, Ph.D. (Harvard University)
• Co-principal investigators John D. Lantos, M.D., and Diane S. Lauderdale, Ph.D. (University of Chicago)
• Julia F. Lynch, Ph.D. (University of Pennsylvania)
• Amy Dockser Marcus (The Wall Street Journal and Columbia University)
• Alejandro Portes, Ph.D. (Princeton University)
• Bhaven N. Sampat, Ph.D. (Columbia University)
• Gary J. Young, J.D., Ph.D. (Boston University)

The researchers will address many challenging policy issues facing America today, as well as wide-ranging concerns about the nation’s health and health care system. Their topics include: pay-for-performance, direct-to-consumer drug advertising, federal funding of biomedical research, the value of psychotropic drugs, complex causes of population health, inequalities and fairness in health care, patient safety in hospitals, the role of nurse practitioners, immigration and the health care system, prenatal care, severe brain injury, and the care of patients with rare cancers.

This highly competitive program attracts investigators from a variety of disciplines, including medicine, nursing, public health, economics, sociology, political science, psychology, history, law, ethics, journalism, and public and social policy. Applications are reviewed by a National Advisory Committee of distinguished experts from fields similar to those of the investigators. Members of the 2006 National Advisory Committee included:

• Paul D. Cleary, Ph.D., Chair (Yale University)
• Marilyn P. Chow, R.N., D.N.Sc. (Kaiser Permanente)
• Nicholas Christakis, M.D., Ph.D. (Harvard University)
• Susan Dentzer (The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS)
• Judy Feder, Ph.D. (Georgetown University)
• Clark C. Havighurst, J.D. (Duke University)
• Sherman James, Ph.D. (Duke University)
• Bruce G. Link, Ph.D. (Columbia University)
• Catherine G. McLaughlin, Ph.D. (University of Michigan)
• Christina H. Paxson, Ph.D. (Princeton University)
• Mark A. Peterson, Ph.D. (University of California, Los Angeles)
• Mark J. Schlesinger, Ph.D. (Yale University and Rutgers)
• Rosemary A. Stevens, Ph.D., M.P.H. (Weill Cornell Medical College)
• Alvin R. Tarlov, M.D. (University of Chicago)
• William A. Vega, Ph.D. (University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey)
• Keith A. Wailoo, Ph.D. (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)

RWJF created the Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research in 1992 to support researchers whose crosscutting and innovative ideas promise to contribute meaningfully to improving health and health care policy. The program provides one of the few funding opportunities in the United States for investigator-initiated projects that are broad in scope, innovative in approach, and have national policy relevance. Since 1992, the Foundation has supported 136 projects involving 171 investigators. According to Lori Melichar, Ph.D., economist and senior program officer in Research and Evaluation at RWJF, "one of the important criteria for selecting investigators is the likelihood that their work will inform health policy. Equally important to being selected is the promise of the investigator’s proposal to rejuvenate the field of health policy research by asking innovative questions, applying innovative frameworks, and using innovative methods."

The Investigator Awards program is led by David Mechanic, Ph.D., and headquartered at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. "This program brings together some of the nation’s most talented scholars addressing in depth the most vexing issues affecting health and health care in the United States," Mechanic says.